villagehorse
Lieutenant General
- Joined
- Feb 5, 2010
- Messages
- 16,245
A great afternoon and night with Andy in fine form. A very up beat and polished speaker, I found myself hanging of every word. His contrast of his production figures in 2007 to that of 2016 and other stats were absorbing. Strangely 2007 was also the year I started collecting my first series which was Ancient Egypt. Many questions from the floor, which the ever hard working behind the scenes, Howard, finally had to bring the event to a close. (maybe he wanted Andy to be kept fresh for his own state Melbourne, the next day^&grin). The questions were vast and varied and not really worth commenting here, as expected everyone had there own agenda and 'wants' which were tactfully fielded by Andy, eg one person wanted a Naval Deck gun by itself, practically it would never sell even though it might be nice. The best thing for me was earlier in the afternoon, when I had the enormous pleasure of setting some displays up which I had brought along, while Andy worked along side setting up the Roman fort, Australian Light Horse, shophouse/Turk and several other small scenes. We chatted away and accused each other of nicking figures from each other, to make their own displays look better. The strong ALH demand here in Australia and the loyal collectors all around the world for this series are in for the ride of their life this year, with what Andy plans to produce in conjunction with the 100th anniversary in Oct for Beersheba. Also Robin Hood has some nice additions including a wagon. More refugees and civilians are in the pipeline. The well known dog Blondie will get some company in the form of 2 Corgi's. A lot of discussion about the 6 day war, with Howard attempting the enthuse the gathering to pressure Andy for a Centurion tank (never say never). To Andy's credit I spotted a running page of notes he was making from ideas given to him from collectors from Brisbane, Sydney and Adelaide. He freely admitted, at times he is too close to the trees and he simply runs out of ideas and suddenly someone gives him a whole different perspective of which could be produced. More Indians, Marines and the Fall of Singapore to come. 95th Rifles and Old Guard for the Napoleonic collectors. Of course a big swag of Romans this year. Sure there is much more to be said, but I want to muck around with my new Roman fort. K& C continues to give us a very exciting hobby, long may this continue. Robin.
